Russia

The human rights situation in Russia continues to deteriorate, with the crackdown intensifying on civil society, media, and the Internet. In 2014, Parliament adopted laws and authorities engaged in practices, that increasingly isolated the country and inflamed a level of anti-Western hysteria unseen since the Soviet era. Authorities arrested and harassed activists, blocked independent online media, adopted new laws, and proposed measures that would further stifle free expression. Anti-LGBT vigilante groups attacked LGBT people across Russia, with little response from the police. Pro-government media supported the government’s effort to control the narrative about developments in Ukraine, including Russia’s occupation of Crimea and its support to insurgents in eastern Ukraine.